DCS says it will cost $55K for child death records

Feb. 5, 2013

Chancery Court Judge Carole McCoy ordered DCS on Jan. 23 to provide redacted copies of the files of more than 200 children who died or nearly died since 2009 after having some contact with DCS. / Steven Harman / File / The Tennessean

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The Department of Children’s Services will charge $55,584 to provide records of children who have died or nearly died after having some interaction with the agency since 2009.

On Monday, state lawyers filed a notice in Davidson County Chancery Court of the time and cost it will take to turn over their files to The Tennessean and a dozen other media outlets around the state that had filed suit to open the records and learn more about the lives and deaths of children under DCS care.

Chancery Court Judge Carole McCoy ordered DCS on Jan. 23 to provide redacted copies of the files of more than 200 children who died or nearly died since 2009 after having some contact with the $650 million child protective agency — along with any cost estimates to produce the files.

The cost estimates produced Monday include a nine-page description of the laborious process DCS says its staff must undergo to find, retrieve, photocopy, hand deliver, redact and photocopy a second time before turning over the files to the public.

The estimate includes 1,798.5 staff hours to provide the files — a total that includes 66 hours of DCS staff time to physically find the files in local offices, 100 hours for staff to deliver them to the regional offices, then another 60 hours for staff to deliver the records to the Nashville Central office. DCS also will have to hire a team of temporary paralegals to help, the filing noted.

The estimate includes 7,102 miles that DCS says its staff must drive to hand deliver the files from the local offices in each county to 12 regional offices, then from the regional offices to the Nashville office. Multiplied by the $.47 state mileage rate, the mileage cost for transporting the records alone adds to $3,374. Staff also will be paid $16.39 per hour to transport the records — for a total of 160 hours of travel time, or $2,622.

The state estimates the same costs for DCS staff to retrace those steps to return the files, once they’ve been copied, back along the same 7,102 miles across Tennessee — a state that is 440 miles long and 120 miles wide — to re-file them in alphabetical order in their local county office.

The U.S. Postal Services charges a flat rate of $39.95 for shipping 70 pounds of records from one end of Tennessee to another — from Memphis to Kingsport, for example. However, state lawyers said the files must be hand delivered in order to protect the confidentiality and integrity of these records.

The cost also includes 600 rolls of white out tape (86 cents per roll at a total estimated cost of $516) to redact the copies and $2,700 in photocopying costs — to copy the documents twice. The filing explained: “DCS will need to use white out tape, which unfortunately, can be easily removed. Accordingly, in order to ensure the confidentiality of this information, DCS will need to make a copy of the relevant portions of each file after it has been redacted.” An administrative assistant’s time will cost $557.26 for photocopying.

Robb Harvey, the attorney representing the media coalition that filed suit, had requested that DCS waive all costs in a Jan. 29 letter to state lawyers, noting the judge’s order stated: “DCS has a statutory duty to provide the non-confidential information as an essential function and integral part of its routine duties.”

In response, the state said DCS rules “does not provide for the waiver of fees under these circumstances.”

“We requested the state waive the redaction fees in order to promote transparency, and they have declined to do so and we are considering our next steps,” said Harvey, an attorney with Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis. “It’s important to note that imposing high costs on public records requestors is the same as denying access to records.”